“It’s a warning.” He paused and took a few steps back. “Because you are my friend. I don’t want to see anything happen to you. Zira thinks she’s invincible, but she’s not. She makes mistakes, too.”
“So do you,” Aubreigh muttered.
“What about me?”
“She’s your mistake. You can’t kill her, and if Ryku finds out how many times you’ve let her live, he’ll kill you. That’s the real reason you’re so worried about all of this.” The words came out before she could stop them. She had no idea what had possessed her to talk to him like that. He could crush her with his bare hands if he wanted to, and provoking him certainly wasn’t helping her position.
Jared didn’t get angry, though. Instead, his shoulders slumped as he shook his head and sighed. “Just get out of this mess while you still can. Please.” He reached for the door, and Aubreigh stood aside to let him out.
She took in a deep, shaky breath as soon as he was gone. Her apartment suddenly felt like a cage, but she waited a couple minutes to allow some distance between herself and Jared before heading out.
She strode across the compound to the cafeteria, eager to be somewhere where she wasn’t alone. Jared’s visit shouldn’t have upset her this much. He’d tried to act all scary and intimidating, but it was just that: an act. Aubreigh knew better. She’d seen his softer side, and if he’d seemed harsh, it was because he cared. Because, as he’d said, they were friends. He would never actually do anything to hurt her…would he?
Zira had probably believed the same thing, before he tried to kill her.
If Jared believed he was doing the right thing for the Project, he could get rid of Aubreigh before she even knew what was happening. It would be so easy for him. She’d seen his softer side, but there was a different side to him she’d only glimpsed a part of back there in her apartment. The part that had been trained to kill since he was a child. The dangerous, ruthless part that had allowed him to become unit E-2’s most formidable operative.
Aubreigh quickened her pace until she reached the cafeteria and was glad to see Revolver sitting in his usual spot in the corner. She needed a friend right now, even if she couldn’t tell him anything, and even if their friendship was a little unconventional. She got her tray and went to sit by him. Revolver looked up and gave her an acknowledging nod. “Hello.”
She forced herself to smile. “Hey.”
They didn’t say anything else for a few minutes. Aubreigh ate her food as quickly as she could without being sloppy and looked around the cafeteria. Jared wasn’t there. A few of her fellow Project members still stared at her and Revolver sitting together, but most had gotten used to the pair of them by now. Sometimes, Aubreigh’s colleagues asked her about it, but she always just shrugged and said, “He’s actually pretty good company.”
That response usually earned her some kind of worried look or disdainful smile, but she didn’t care. More and more lately, it was true. She may have initiated whatever sort of relationship she and Revolver now had because she wanted information, but it hadn’t panned out the way she’d hoped it would. He wasn’t much of a conversationalist—not without prompting, anyway—and she couldn’t ask too many questions without raising his suspicion. But she enjoyed his company, so she continued their evening ritual of eating together. He fascinated her, and the more time Aubreigh spent with him, the more convinced she became that he wasn’t nearly as different from everyone else as they all believed.
Revolver finished eating and broke the silence. “You don’t have any questions today.”
“What?” Aubreigh said. She thought she saw something warm and bright in his expression—something vaguely sentimental—but it might have just been the way the light fell.
“You usually ask about my day, or tell me about yours, but today you’re quiet.”
“Sorry. I’m just distracted, I guess. I didn’t get much sleep last night, and today was stressful.”
“Inadequate sleep can cause irritability and stress,” said Revolver. “You should try to go to bed earlier tonight.”
Aubreigh laughed a little. Everything was always so straightforward and logical with him—almost the opposite of how she typically viewed situations. It was comforting, even if he hadn’t consciously intended it to be. And it was good advice.
“Did I say something funny?” Revolver asked.
Aubreigh didn’t have to force the smile this time. Her spirits were already lifted. “No, of course not. That’s actually a great idea. Thank you.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“What happened?”
The call had barely connected, and already Chase sounded livid. Both Tripp and Zira shifted under his gaze as they faced the computer perched on a crooked stool in front of them. On the display, Chase appeared calm, but his sharp tone gave away the anger and frustration hovering just below the surface. They were back in their apartment in Austin, having concluded there was no reason to leave the area. As far as they knew, no one was tracking their location, and moving would have been an unnecessary risk.
Zira looked Chase in the eye and spoke with calm composure. “He had a bodyguard. I got caught.”
“If you got caught, why aren’t you locked up? Or dead?”
“I escaped.”
Chase shook his head. “I don’t want to hear the same vague story you gave Alma and Javier. I want answers. Details. What happened exactly? How did you escape?”
Zira braced herself for his reaction. “It was Jared. He caught me trying to break into Ryku’s room. He didn’t kill me because we…because of our history. That gave Aubreigh time to come in and distract him so I could get away.”
The lines around Chase’s mouth deepened. “So you got away, and then what?”
“We went back to the guardhouse, then Tripp and I left.”
“You left?”
“Yes.”
He raised an eyebrow. “It sounds to me like you had the perfect opportunity to go back and kill Ryku at that point. You’d incapacitated his bodyguard, hadn’t you?”
“Not completely.” She could see what he was getting at, and he had a point, but she stood by her decision nonetheless.
“But you could have killed him, then gone back to finish off Ryku. You should have killed him before you even tried to enter Ryku’s quarters.”
“I didn’t know he would be there.”
“You had to have known it was a possibility.” Zira had nothing to say to that, so she just let Chase continue. He shook his head. “I asked you to do this because you were the most capable of succeeding. If I’d known you weren’t even going to try, I would have sent in Alma and Javier.”
“And they’d probably both be dead right now,” said Zira.
“Maybe, but they knew the risk. And at least they would have tried.”
“I did try,” she retorted. But she hadn’t. Not really. Everything he’d said about what she should have done differently was true, but she couldn’t give him a reasonable explanation for her choices. Not one he’d understand or accept. No matter what else Jared might be to her, he was not her enemy. She could never kill him. And it seemed he could never kill her, either. Knowing that somehow gave her a little comfort in spite of everything else that had happened.
“I’m extremely disappointed in both of you,” said Chase. “Tripp, you vouched for her. I told you when you brought her into this that you would be responsible for her.”
“And I still gladly accept that responsibility,” said Tripp. There wasn’t even a hint of uncertainty or regret in his voice, and Zira loved him for it.
Chase sighed and turned to Zira again. “I had my doubts about this from the start. You need to figure out where your loyalties lie and choose a side. I can’t have someone I don’t trust involved in our work.”
“Oh, give it a rest, Chase,” said Tripp. “Hasn’t she proven herself already? You knew this was a bold move. Reckless, even. There were a million things that could have gone wrong in there and we were lucky
to make it out alive. Or do you not care about that part? Are we just pawns to be ordered around and thrown away however you see fit?”
Chase’s expression shifted as all the carefully controlled anger he’d suppressed surged up to the surface. “Don’t you ever accuse me of not valuing the lives of every person in this rebellion. After all the second chances I gave you when you were too strung out on heroin to make a single worthwhile contribution to our cause, you of all people should know better.”
“I’ve done my fair share since then,” Tripp said. “The least you could give me is a little trust.”
“It’s her I don’t trust.”
“That’s on you, then. You have no reason not to.”
“Maybe not, but until I know that for certain, I’m going to keep my guard up.” He glanced down for a moment and his features softened. “Look, I have to go. I wish things had turned out differently, but I appreciate your efforts. I know it was a lot to ask.”
Tripp nodded. “We’ll talk to you later.” He disconnected and turned to Zira with a sigh. “Well, that was fun.”
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“It’s not your fault, kid. He never should have sent us in there in the first place.”
“I shouldn’t have made you go.” She’d tried not to force it on him, but couldn’t help feeling partially responsible for his agreeing to the plan and the failure it had turned out to be.
He shrugged. “You did what you thought was right, and so did I. I didn’t like it, but I can’t keep running forever.”
He went to the pantry and returned with a can of soup for their dinner, which he poured into two chipped coffee mugs that had been left by the previous occupants. He handed one to Zira, and they sat on the floor with their backs against the wall. “You know, going back like that actually didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. I guess that’s just time. Sixteen years. Almost half my life.”
Zira swirled her soup in an attempt to dissolve the slimy film that had formed on top. “What happened? Why did you leave?”
Tripp took a sip from his mug, then stared into it. “I was still new to the Project when I met Ryku. We worked together for a couple months to create some training simulations for the E-2 operatives. We didn’t have much in common, but we just hit it off and started hanging out together outside of work. Not long after, I met his fiancée, Rafaela. She was an E-2 operative as well. And I know this sounds stupid and cliché, but the moment I saw her, there was an instant connection.”
“Ryku was engaged?” Zira said. “I have a hard time imagining he could love anyone that way.”
“He wasn’t always so cold and manipulating.” Tripp smiled as if recalling a happy memory. “He never really had a sense of humor, but he was a good friend. And he adored Rafi.”
“What changed?”
“I think a lot of it was just his dad. Chairman Mason might have been a worse leader than Ryku is now, just in a different way. He had a drinking problem, and it affected his job. When he wasn’t neglecting his work completely, he just didn’t make the best decisions. Ryku picked up a lot of the slack, but it took a toll on him. He was trying to take care of his mom at the same time. She had her own issues.”
“Like what?”
“Mental illness. I don’t know much more than that—he didn’t like to talk about it. I think it all just got to be too much. He started lashing out at everyone. First me, then Rafi. When she and Ryku drifted apart, I swept in.” He shrugged. “I told myself it didn’t mean anything. I was just trying to be a good friend and give her a shoulder to cry on. But I didn’t try to stop it when it became more than that.”
“So Ryku was jealous?” Zira asked.
“No, I don’t think so. Even if he was, he still cared about her enough to respect her decision. He and I just kind of stopped talking to each other, but other than that, everything seemed fine for about a month or two. Rafi and I were happy. She found out she was pregnant. She didn’t know whether it was mine or Ryku’s, but I didn’t care. I told her we could be a family. I was going to be a father.”
His smile lasted just long enough to touch his eyes, then vanished. “One day she got an assignment. I didn’t like it, but she didn’t want anyone else to know about the pregnancy since it was still so early, and I couldn’t tell her what to do. She left and never came back.”
He paused to take a long drink of his soup. Zira had already finished hers and ran her thumb around the rim of the empty mug. “I’m so sorry,” she said.
“Ryku was out of his mind when he found out she was dead. I told him about the baby. I figured he had a right to know, but now I think it would have been kinder to just keep it to myself. He slammed me against the wall and just started screaming in my face. He seemed to think Mason had somehow orchestrated Rafaela’s death.”
“Why would he do something like that?” Zira asked.
“There were already whispers that the other chairmen were going to oust Mason because of his poor leadership. By that time, Ryku was doing a lot of his work anyway, so it made sense that the other chairman would appoint him to take Mason’s place. Ryku believed his father intentionally gave Rafi bad information and sent her on an especially dangerous mission as a way to hurt him—to turn him into an emotional train wreck unfit to be chairman.”
“But his plan backfired,” said Zira. “Ryku killed him.”
Tripp nodded. “While he was yelling at me, he told me he wanted to kill Mason. He said it a few times, actually, before he stormed off. I didn’t think he meant it. He was angry, but I didn’t think he’d do something like that.”
“But then Chairman Mason turned up missing.”
“The very next day,” Tripp said. “I knew Ryku was responsible, and it didn’t take him long to realize I could easily connect him to the disappearance. He came to me and warned me not to say anything. Well, threatened is probably a better word. I figured it was only a matter of time before he turned those threats into actions. If he’d been willing to kill his own father, he wouldn’t have had any problem killing me. I ran.”
Zira had no doubt that leaving when he did had saved Tripp’s life, even if it hadn’t been the most noble course of action. Had he chosen to stay behind or say anything to the other chairmen that might have obstructed Ryku’s path to power, he would have been dead.
“I laid low for a while,” Tripp continued. “I managed to hack into the Project’s network, which allowed me to stay a few steps ahead of them while it lasted. I’d been convicted as a traitor and a deserter, sentenced to be executed if I was ever found. Unit E-1 was handling my case for a while, but when it got passed over to unit E-2 I knew I was in real trouble. I went back to my family’s place. I wanted to make sure they were okay and do whatever I could to protect them. That’s when I found out about the car crash.”
He let out a slow, shaky breath and stared into his cup before continuing. “I just couldn’t deal with any of it—Rafi’s death, my family’s murder, the fact that my former best friend was trying to kill me. I drank for a while to drown it out, and when that stopped working, I turned to drugs. Once I tried heroin, I was hooked. It numbed everything out so I didn’t have to feel sad or angry or hurt. I just didn’t care anymore.” He sighed. “I’ve already told you the rest. I overdosed and wound up in a hospital, but luckily the rebels found me before Ryku did.”
He’d been through so much, and he’d done most of it on his own. Zira couldn’t even imagine leaving the Project and trying to survive out here alone, with Ryku actively looking for her and without any of the guidance Tripp had provided. The fact that he’d endured all of it and come out on the other side possessing such a healthy sense of optimism was a miracle. She wasn’t sure what to say, but she understood him a little better now.
“Look, kid,” said Tripp, “I know our situations aren’t completely the same, but I like to think I understand some of what you’re going through.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s hard to just
leave all of that behind you. Maybe impossible. I’ve been carrying my past around like a sack of bricks for sixteen years, and some days it’s still just as heavy as it was the day I left.”
“Maybe it will be easier when Ryku’s gone,” said Zira. “For both of us.”
“Yeah, maybe.” He didn’t sound so convinced.
“I really am trying to help the rebellion.”
“I know. And so does Chase, but sometimes trust gets buried under all the other stuff he has to worry about. Give it a few days and he’ll cool off. We’ll be back to doing regular, boring transports in no time.”
Zira nodded. After yesterday’s adventure, boring sounded just fine to her—for a little while, at least.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Jared took the elevator up to the top floor of the unit A research facility, where he’d scheduled a mission briefing with all members of the new team he’d assembled to find and capture Judah. The room he’d chosen for them to work from had once been used to orient new PEACE volunteers, but since the Project recruited its members from infancy now, it no longer served any real purpose. Dusty tables, chairs, and other long-forgotten equipment cluttered the room, but there was plenty of space. With a little work, it could function as an ideal base of operations for him and his team. More importantly, they could use the room long-term. As much as he would have liked to believe they could finish the mission quickly, it would probably take more than just a few days or even weeks to find a man who’d managed to evade Ryku for sixteen years, even if Jared did have the Project’s sharpest minds and best resources at his disposal.
He started pushing tables and chairs into a more orderly arrangement as he waited for the others. Cecilia arrived first and slid into a chair at the front of the room while Jared tried to hook up an outdated projector screen. Zira had never gotten along with Cecilia, and Jared wasn’t particularly looking forward to working with her, but she was a good operative. She was clever and knew how to get things done in an efficient manner, and they might need someone with her ruthlessness in order to catch Judah. He’d also asked her partner, Lucas, to be a part of the task force. He walked through the door a few minutes later and took an open seat next to Cecilia.
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